Connecting the Stars
by heroes for ghosts
Summary: ROMY! After Xavier begins to cut off his X-Men from humanity, a couple leave in the shadow of the night. Years later, the new leader of the X-Men, Kitty Pryde, finds them by mistakes. Companion piece to Stars in December.


A/N: This is both the first Romy I've ever written and the first in my new series. Every story in Connecting the Stars takes place in the universe of Stars in December, but they fill in the blanks that Stars in December leaves. For example, upcoming in Connecting the Stars are stories about how Jono and Sarah met, how Kurt and Amanda got married and a nice big love pentagon featuring Jubilee, Logan, Scott, Emma and Jean. So tell me what you think and if there are any holes you want to see filled, let me know!  
  


* * *

  
They left in the middle of the night, when they thought no one was up to hear them leave. It had been just a quick gathering of possessions, some quiet kisses in the dark and then they were slipping out of the academy and out into the night. They didn't know that he was sitting in his office, listening and watching.  
  
Initially, Rogue had been the most vocal opponent to Xavier's new philosophy. His sudden 180 degree turn after the incident with Cassandra had nearly been understandable at first. His world was shaken. Changes were to be expected. But it was lasting longer than anyone had expected and Xavier refused to admit anything was wrong. He called all of his children back to him, including Rogue and Remy. He cut any and all connections he had with any governments, and stopped getting involved in "human problems that didn't involve mutants". He drew the line between mutant and human. He stopped caring about the world.  
  
Rogue had been angry, angrier than most. Scott had been quiet in a sad kind of way. Hank had shook his head and disappeared into the lab for the next few years. The kids were scared. Logan seemed fine with it. Ororo left as soon as she could. Jean was barely there anymore.  
  
Rogue had railed against Xavier. She wasn't content to accept it, and she wasn't willing to just walk away. She wanted to change him, to pull him back to the right side like he had done to her years before.  
  
But nothing changed. And Rogue began to fade.  
  
Even the streak in her hair was becoming less noticeable. She barely talked to anyone, save Remy who was even quieter. Sometimes they weren't seen for days. This was all during the first weeks after Xavier's announcement, the fallout. Eventually, life seemed like it was going on again, continuing in normalcy. Emma led the X-Men until it was decided that Kitty was mature enough to lead the field team. The X-Men didn't interfere with purely human problems, leaving them for the Avengers and the Fantastic Four. They soon realized that it was just as well.  
  
They were proactive now, not reactive. Xavier started taking to using Cerebra to read minds and investigate who was thinking about causing harms to mutants. He would pinpoint their location and send the X-Men out to them. Very often Kitty would do a quick investigation and report back to Xavier that everything was fine. She didn't like the lawless of arresting or hurting someone who may be thinking of harming someone. She didn't know that Xavier kept a file of everyone of them. She didn't know that occasionally, when he suspected the threat was very dangerous, he would burn out parts of their brain.  
  
No one knew any of this. But maybe Rogue and Remy suspected it somehow. Maybe that's why they left, in the middle of the night, without saying a word.  
  
The others had been alarmed. They hadn't lost one of their own since Storm took off at the beginning of Xavier's change to be worshipped by tribes in Africa. Some of the younger ones were scared that Rogue and Remy were going to go to the police, to the government. Some of the younger ones wanted to go with them.  
  
Kurt had teleported in from Limbo, along with his new wife Amanda. She offered to use her scrying pool to find them if Xavier was worried about their location. Xavier refused the offer and after a few weeks, everything calmed down like it did in the beginning, back to what passed for normal these days.  
  
And then M.A.X., Mutants Against Xavier, started up. Their religious dogmatic belief that mutants were mistakes that should serve humans and intense conviction that Xavier was Satan incarnate for his interloping into human affairs. It didn't matter that Xavier had already withdrawn himself for non-mutant affairs. They accused him of encouraging mutant hordes of devil-worshippers. Xavier pulled away even more.  
  
Rogue and Remy were mostly forgotten. Occasionally they crossed the mind of some of the X-Men, Kitty, Rogue, Kurt and Piotr. For the most part, they were gone and Xavier never spoke of them again.  
  
But Kitty found them once. In Paris. Sent to investigate and possibly destroy the Parisian base of M.A.X., Kitty and the others had arrived to find the base had already gone to hell. M.A.X. was under some kind of attack from some stealthy unseen guerilla force and the whole place was burning. Kitty over-rode Xavier's commands and instructed the others to put out the flames and save those that could be saved. Xavier had wanted to let the whole thing burned to the ground.  
  
It was when Kitty was phasing through the flames, trying to get to the master control room, when she saw him.  
  
"Remy," she said, evenly. It was mostly to hear his name again out in the air, to remember that he was real and he had been with them once. She saw the glint of his eyes, a hint of a smile through the smoke.  
  
"Petite chat," he said and she smiled.  
  
"What are you doing here?" she asked. Both of their voices were quiet against the roaring of the flames.  
  
She could see the outline of his shoulders shrugging. "These bastards been leeching off my city for too long."  
  
"You're living in Paris now?"  
  
"Oui. With Rogue. She probably aroun' here somewhere."  
  
Kitty peered at him through the flames curiously. "What happened to you guys? Why did you leave?"  
  
Remy turned slightly, all in profile. "Didn't like the changes in Xavier. Not much different than Magneto, no?" He seemed simultaneously happy and sad. "Besides, not much of a chance of a happy normal life for Roguey and I living at the mansion."  
  
Kitty smiled and gestured to the building around here. "Like this is normal?"  
  
Remy turned back to her again and his devil red eyes gleamed mischievously. "For Roguey and I." For a moment, he leaned in closer and she could see the flames shadowing all over his face. "When you break free of Xav, come see our little Adrienne, oui?"  
  
And then he was gone. The smoke was hanging thicker in the air and Kitty absent mindedly coughed before she remembered that she was inside a burning building. She continued without thinking.  
  
Later on that evening, standing with the others in front of the remains of M.A.X. headquarters, Kitty remembered the mysterious ghost that had come back and his last words to her. Looking over the ashes and embers, she tried to commit every word he said, every move he made to memory. He had said something very important to her just now, and she would eventually figure out what.  
  
The X-Men went home and Kitty never spoke of the event to anyone. 


End file.
